The federal government's defence plan will cost $20 billion more than the federal government said it would cost, at least according to the Vice Chief of Defence Staff. Stephen Harper responded to the criticism by explaining that the country would be purchasing its planes and tanks through Canadian Tire, and that the Canadian Tire money generated by the purchases would be applied directly to the national debt, thus equalizing out costs. Tory MP Jason......

The Ontario Humans Rights Commission has determined that Asian fishermen assaulted by people shouting racial slurs were the victims of racism. That's some fine sleuthing, people. If your home is heated with natural gas, you might want to invest in some bulky sweaters before winter rolls around. Prices are set to jump by around 20% come July—a wise marketing strategy that takes advantage of the North American "I don't care about anything that isn't......

Barack Obama inched closer to the Democratic Presidential nomination last night, winning North Carolina pretty decisively and holding Hillary Clinton's victory in Indiana to a near-tie. Pundits and prognosticators alike agreed that at long last, Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the nomination were almost totally nonexistent, now that America has finally come to terms with the fact that Barack Obama is black, y'all, he's black, y'all, he's blackety-blackety-black, y'all. According to the Auditor General, the......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

Reflections in the Hall of Mirrors: American Movies and the Politics of Idealism is a series of lectures at the Revue Cinema that will look at films made during past and present American presidencies that reflect the culture and politics of their time. The lectures will run monthly from April until November, with the first lecture scheduled for April 26 at 10:30 a.m on the Kennedy era. The Manchurian Candidate, about a soldier brainwashed by......

Hillary Clinton has won the Pennsylvania primary. The Clinton campaign remains alive after a ten-point win in the state, thus proving that a campaign currently in debt can win if it runs enough negative attacks and limps along to the next contest. This is also known as the "limping zombie" theory of electoral campaigning. The Tories are defending their election financing shenanigans. This marks the "what we did was perfectly okay" stage of the......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

Toronto principal in controversial controversy over explicit poems he wrote and posted to his website. This is of course the first recorded case ever of somebody getting in trouble for something they wrote on the Internet, and the scandal has sent shock waves through the online community. "Wait, somebody actually reads this shit?" said Patrick Metzger. "Dammit, I better re-emphasize that my erotic snuff story about Geri Halliwell is purely a work of fiction!"......

So, you may have noticed it snowed this weekend. If you don't believe us, go check out the Toronto Star's website, where nine out of ten local stories are about the snow, people dealing with the snow, and celebrities talking about the snow. Notably absent among them: the probable cause for all of this snow. Rare meteor lands somewhere near Georgian Bay. This would as opposed to the common, everyday type of meteor that......

City councillor, unintentional humourist, and Torontoist favourite Councillor Rob Ford has grabbed himself some headlines again. He refuses to apologize for his comments on Wednesday, "the Oriental people, they're slowly taking over...they're hard, hard workers," because his sweeping generalization was intended as "a compliment." However, a spokesperson for the Canadian Council of Lazy Asians has said that the remarks were "deeply offensive." A devout Sikh man has lost his bid to overturn the law......

It snowed again last night, so if you're going anywhere, it'll probably take you a long time. However, we're getting another storm on the weekend so you might as well wait before you start shovelling. Actually, it'll be spring in a couple of weeks anyway so if you have enough cans of SpaghettiO's, it's probably best to just stay home til then. The Bank of Canada slashed interest rates by fifty basis points yesterday,......

New glass recycling program will save local municipalities millions of dollars. It turns out that you can turn used glass into other things than smaller bits of broken glass! Stephen Harper threatens to sue Stéphane Dion for libel over allegations of bribery. Harper, long an advocate of tort reform, explained that while limiting the ability of people to sue is generally a good thing, he didn't mean that it should apply to him. Tory......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman has caused a furor with his comment that he'd be willing to test-drive an adult diaper to see if being left in soiled diapers for hours on end is really all that bad. Critics say he isn't taking the issue of sub-standard care in nursing homes seriously, which seems a bit harsh, since there can't be too many politicians who'd be willing to spend a day crouched in their own......

Say hello to a "prudent" budget. Stéphane Dion criticized the bill for being ineffectual, but of course not so ineffectual that the Liberals would vote against it and force an election. (Elsewhere, Thomas Walkom points out that the budget includes a new system of income tax shelter that will, and I am sure you are surprised by this, primarily benefit wealthy Canadians.) Julian Fantino complains about "discount sentences." Apparently, the idea that experienced criminals......

In the most important news story of the day, two people have been arrested in the mysterious case of Huckleberry, the dog who vanished from outside a Yonge Street bakery and was returned after his owner offered a $15,000 reward. Police haven't said whether they believe Huckleberry was in on the caper. Oil prices closed yesterday at over US$100 a barrel yesterday, spooking financial markets. And my mom said I was crazy for keeping......

TTC "U-pass" close to passing for students, possibly also hotel workers. If the scheme passes, the TTC will suddenly be crowded once again, rendering all those recent fleet upgrades essentially moot. Hooray for public transit! Jack Layton calls for Family Day to be named a national holiday. He then asked for a pony and all the candy he could ever eat ever, on the basis that it was about as likely that Stephen Harper would......

TTC promises more buses, new routes, candy. Okay, they're not promising candy, but over the next year there will be gradual extra service along all of the TTC's major routes to lessen the impact of crowding. In 2009: possibly we get candy. Speaking of the TTC, Dalton McGuinty wants to bring it under provincial control as part of the Metrolinx regional transportation authority. Bypassing the fact that "Metrolinx" is a terrible, terrible name for......

Barack Obama thumps Hillary Clinton in last night's primaries. Obama for the first time won the majority of Latino voters, the majority of women voters, and the majority of senior citizen voters, while broadening his support in the demographics he was already winning. On the bright side for Hillary, she did manage to win the vote of nearly 87 percent of the voters who thought she was more qualified to be President than Obama.......

A three hour Blackberry outage affected millions of people across North America yesterday, leading to much wailing and handwringing over the temporary unavailability of a technology that didn't even exist ten years ago. Truly we are a nation of whiners. The Toronto Maple Leafs braved the cold to hold an unannounced outdoor skate at Withrow Park yesterday, where they were cheered on by 300 local grade-schoolers. Following the warmup, the kids formed a pickup......

Extreme cold alert! Be forewarned that this extreme cold is not extreme in the sense of "it is totally radical like Doritos and Mountain Dew," but rather extreme in the sense of "it can kill you if you stay out in it too long." Environment Canada will discuss the prospects of the extreme cold's effect on totally shredding slopes with your snowboard later today. Barack Obama thumps Hillary Clinton over the weekend, with impressively......

The Tory minority government is double-dog-daring the Opposition to force an election over their crime bill. Prediction: Stéphane Dion will grumble and pretend he doesn't care, Jack Layton will howl impotently, and the Bloc will negotiate another billion dollars for folk-dancing in Rimouski. Stephen Harper is truly the alpha Parliamentarian in this bunch. Did you know that Toronto has already gotten as much snow this winter as the past two winters combined, and that......

The weather continues to suck in Toronto as today promises more snow, sleet, rain and just about every other damn unpleasant thing that can fall out of the sky short of a hail of radioactive meteorites. On the other hand, the central U.S. suffered a rash of tornadoes yesterday that killed at least 27 people, so suck it up and go shovel the walk of the old people down the street. U.S. candidates continue......

It's Super Tuesday south of the border, and American politics are finally becoming interesting again rather than just depressing. The web is crowded with candidate support videos, and one of the oddest and most widely disseminated is "Yes We Can," assembled by Black Eyed Pea will.i.am. Distractingly overlaying an Obama speech onto a rootsy acoustic track, the video features appearances by fellow musicians Common and John Legend, but also Scarlett Johansson (who's releasing an......

Kennedy Station will remain closed today, at least for the morning. So, if you live in Scarborough, enjoy those shuttle buses. It's Super Tuesday! Barack Obama is closing the gap with Hillary Clinton in a number of key states, most notably California. Meanwhile, the Republican race is boiling down to a dogfight between Mitt Romney, running on the "I hate liberals the most" platform, and John McCain, running on the "I might actually be......

Hey, did you know it's snowing? School buses have already been cancelled for today, meaning that children will romp and play in the streets and sabotage snowplow drivers and Chevy Chase will duel with a rival meteorologist for some reason and the mayor will declare it to be the "funnest day ever." Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have a nice, pleasant debate about minute policy issues. The debate was thus about as interesting as watching......

Provincial Conservative leader John Tory, battling to stay employed in the face of disaffected fellow partiers who want to hold a leadership review next month, says in a letter on his website that he has travelled the province listening to members and coming up with ideas to address their concerns. The Tories are lucky; a leader who also had a job as an MPP probably wouldn't have time for stuff like that. Provincial education......

Chalk River reactor's risk level was 1,000 times greater than normal. However, Stephen Harper is a certified nuclear engineer, so if he says it's safe, then shouldn't we trust him? Wait, what? He's not a certified nuclear engineer? Well, dang. John McCain wins crucial Florida primary. The old coot narrowly defeated the Mormon android and the world's angriest ex-mayor to maintain his momentum in the Republican candidates' race. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama in......

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.......

Barack Obama lays down the smack in South Carolina's presidential primary. Obama won by an enormous 28-point margin, prompting Bill Clinton to afterwards comment that this was no big deal because Jesse Jackson, who is a black man, like Barack Obama, won South Carolina when he ran for President, and did he mention that Barack Obama is black just like Jesse Jackson? (Also black: Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and that R&B star that had......